A PHOTOGRAPHY firm has been ordered to pay a former employee more than £5,000 compensation after giving him wage cheques that bounced.

James Thrower, of Langley Moor, near Durham, said he quit his job at Risbeys Photographic shop, in Darlington, because he had to pester bosses every week for his wages.

When he did get paid the cheques would sometimes bounce and on one occasion a Risbeys director wrote out a cheque for Mr Thrower from his personal account, the tribunal heard.

Risbeys Photographic Limited has been ordered to pay £4,403 compensation and Mr Thrower's outstanding wages of £1,190.

The firm is a separate company from Risbeys Photography, which continues to trade.

Mr Thrower, who worked at a shop in Skinnergate, Darlington, which is now closed, claimed constructive dismissal after he quit in May.

He produced bank statements to show how cheques for his wages had bounced, and told the hearing in Newcastle: "My faith in them as employers had already been pushed to the limit from having to persistently request my wages every week, then receiving late payments from them, only to be advised by the bank that the cheque had bounced. This latest sequence of events really was the last straw."

Since quitting Risbeys, he had been unable to find work.

No one from Risbeys Photographic was present at the hearing, although former director Derek Risbey wrote to the tribunal asking for an adjournment because he had received no correspondence about the case.

He also requested that his firm's address for correspondence be changed from Skinnergate to Baydale Road, Darlington.

The adjournment request was refused and the day before the hearing Mr Risbey was faxed to say it would go ahead, and as Risbeys was a limited company all correspondence had to be sent to its registered address.

The tribunal agreed Mr Thrower had been unfairly dismissed because of the conduct of his employer.

Derek Risbey declined to comment last night.